


like a bird in flight

by justdoityoufucker



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Sakura is the Jinchuuriki, Teens being teens, what is canon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-15 00:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19284373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdoityoufucker/pseuds/justdoityoufucker
Summary: Amazingly, it takes until nearly twelve years after the destruction of Konohagakure by the Kyuubi for Sarutobi Hiruzen to realize that the Jinchuuriki of said Kyuubi has been, in a word, misplaced.





	like a bird in flight

**Author's Note:**

> oh yes, babes  
> some notes: changed up some backstory for the haruno family, changed up canon as far as the uchihas go so sasuke still has family tho his dad is dead, changed up the sequence of events after the chuunin exams

Amazingly, it takes until nearly twelve years after the destruction of Konohagakure by the Kyuubi for Sarutobi Hiruzen to realize that the Jinchuuriki of said Kyuubi has been, in a word,  _ misplaced. _

That is an understatement. That is also the kindest way that Hatake Kakashi and his Anbu team can break the news to him, because after spending a full week trying to find the Jinchuuriki, they’ve failed.

“It’s not Naruto?” Hiruzen asks for probably the thirteenth time, and he breaks a fourth pen with his shaking hands. Yugao hasn’t had the heart to hide the rest of them, so he grabs a fifth one and promptly snaps it in half as well. Shinobu winces from her spot next to his desk.

“No, Hokage-sama,” Itachi seems to be the only one not ready to slam his head against a wall, but he’s always the calm one, “we have confirmed that it is not Naruto-kun. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling who has chakra suitable for pairing with the Kyuubi, or who the Yondaime Hokage might have chosen.”

Hiruzen now has his face buried in his hands, and nobody can tell if he’s laughing or crying or just given up. “Shinobu,” he finally says, voice muffled, “start a letter to Jiraiya.”

-

Haruno Sakura has just turned twelve and is sitting at the dining room table. She was doing her homework, but her attention has been captured by the swaying of the trees outside the window. Her father is in the kitchen making dinner, and her mother is somewhere in the house, probably finishing a mission report.

She’s ten. It doesn’t feel as life-changing as she thought it would be.

“Working hard?” her dad asks from the other room, and she jumps (just a little).

“Yeah,” she replies, refocuses her attention on the logic problems Iruka-sensei had given them. A thinly veiled math worksheet. She finishes the last two problems and clears off the table, sits back down to stare out the window. It feels like something incredible should happen, but her hopes have been lowered.

Miso cod, rice, veggies, followed by her favorite dessert, anmitsu. Her parents bought her a new yukata and some books; her great-aunt who lives on the eastern border of the Land of Fire sent her a set of antique hairpins. On one hand, Sakura is thrilled that it’s her birthday, but on the other she’s disappointed. Because the lack of change, of course, but also because of other little things; Ino still isn’t speaking to her, the other girls were bullying her again, and just--it  _ felt  _ like a bad day, deep down in her gut.

When she’s going to bed her mom stops her, a gentle hand warm on her back, and asks, “Would you mind having tea with us? There’s something we need to talk about.”

That’s scary, the way she phrases it. Like something’s badly wrong. But Sakura nods and sits on the couch, takes the cup of herbal tea that her dad passes her and holds it like a lifeline.

It’s a few moments before anyone speaks, moments her parents spend apparently communicating with their eyes. “Sakura,” her dad finally says, and she fixes her gaze on him, only bad thoughts swirling in her mind, “do you remember learning about the Bijuu, and jinchuuriki in your class?”

“Yes,” she says,  _ of course,  _ that was one of her favorites of Iruka-sensei’s lectures because it was so interesting. It was one of the few instances that she cherished her photographic memory, because she can still recall the entire thing. The sudden mention doesn’t assuage her fears, though, as nebulous as they are.

“Well, this has to do with that,” her mom says, gently covering one of Sakura’s hands with her own, “it happened a long time ago, and you probably don’t remember.”

“Remember what? The Kyuubi attack?” she asks, because she can start seeing the dots.

“That,” her mom says, carefully, “and what the Yondaime did.”

She blanks for a moment. “He--sealed the Kyuubi?”

“Yes,” her dad says, almost encouragingly, like they’ve already given her all the pieces to the puzzle and she just needs to put them together.

She’s so tired, though, and she just can’t pull together enough brainpower to think through it. “What does that have to do with us?”

Her dad looks a little bemused, but her mom seems to take pity on her, squeezes her hand. “Everything, sweetheart. You were seven months old at the time and--well, there is no easy way to say this, but you were the one he decided to seal the Kyuubi in.”

It takes a few moments for her brain to process those separate words into cohesive sentences, but even then they don’t make sense. She was seven months old, because the Kyuubi appeared in October, but her? The vessel for the Kyuubi? No way, they  _ learned _ about this, jinchuuriki needed to have specialized chakra and usually were from an Uzumaki bloodline. Sakura looks to her dad, hoping he will finish the joke or tell her this isn’t real, but he nods.

“What?” she squeaks out, and that’s all she can manage for the rest of the night.

-

The questions come later. Once she’s had a chance to process everything, after a couple weeks, she pries her parents for everything they know. Information about the Kyuubi, about the Yondaime Hokage, about that night. To get a timeline, of sorts. To understand the most important thing that happened to her that she didn’t even  _ remember. _

So,  _ yeah _ , she wants to know what the hell happened.

-

Umino Iruka has known who the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi is since they first started in his class. And it’s one hell of a coincidence that the one day that the Sannin Jiraiya comes to visit his class is the one day that Haruno Sakura is out with the flu. Okay, yeah, Iruka has told the Hokage about his suspicions, but  _ obviously _ there’s no way the Yondaime Hokage would’ve chosen a child at random to put the Kyuubi into.

_ Obviously _ .

Anyway, he’s pretty sure he’s right, because Jiraiya goes through and tests most of the kids in the Academy and later Iruka hears through the grapevine that the Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki is still AWOL. Not that he’s going to try and tell the Hokage (again). It’s just frustrating, and Iruka isn’t sure if he should mention it to like, her parents. Maybe. They probably know? Iruka never knew the Yondaime, but he assumes the man was kind enough to let her parents know.

Plus, he  _ might _ have done some digging, and  _ might  _ have found out that both of Sakura’s parents are branch-house Senju; all Senju have Uzumaki somewhere in their blood. The two clans should’ve basically been considered one by the time Konoha was founded.

But it’s out of his hands. The Hokage doesn’t believe him, and, anyway, Sakura’s not going to be his student in a couple days. Graduation has come, and through a massive surprise everyone has passed. Honestly, it’s the first time that  _ that _ has ever happened for him, but he’s not complaining. Let the jounin deal with their pre-genin and let him get a goddamn rest.

And good luck to one Hatake Kakashi, as he’s getting Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Sakura.

-

Hatake Kakashi gets Uzumaki Naruto (and that’s a twist of goddamn fate in itself), but he assumes he doesn’t have the Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki in his team. After all, it definitely isn’t Uchiha Sasuke, and he’s never even heard of Haruno Sakura before.

Oh, he’s wrong. And he feels like a goddamn idiot for assuming he knew  _ anything _ . He deserves it. But it raises the question of why Jiraiya didn’t find her to be the jinchuuriki when he was in Konoha, and the answer for the question is in one Umino Iruka, who doesn’t even jump when Kakashi appears in the teacher’s workroom.

“Where was Haruno Sakura when the Sannin Jiraiya was visiting the school?” he asks before Iruka can get a word in edgewise. Hopefully this teacher’s something like Ebisu and therefore won’t be able to understand what he’s truly probing for.

“Jiraiya? Oh,” Umino Iruka says, his expression far too knowing and his eyes far too clever, “you realized it, too.”

_ Too? _ Well, that makes everything more complicated.

-

Kakashi-sensei is surprised to learn that she knows she has the Kyuubi in her. Well, duh, it’s not like her parents don’t care about her or want her to succeed in life, and the Yondaime apparently did want them to tell her.

(“Mi--the Yondaime told your parents that?” Kakashi asks, completely baffled.

“You can always ask my mom and dad about it,” Sakura replies, only momentarily glancing up from the scroll on chakra control she’s reading. Kakashi-sensei looks petrified at the thought.)

Everything is more confusing than it was, if that’s even possible. Kakashi let slip that he thought Naruto was the jinchuuriki, which made no sense when he said it, but now that she’s had time to think it over, it does make a little sense. It explains why everyone treats him bad, from what she’s seen. It isn’t pity that drives her to try to be more patient and kind after she realizes that, but anger. If everyone knew that she was the jinchuuriki, not Naruto, she’d be the one treated like that.

But  _ why _ is the question she wants an answer to. Sakura knows the Kyuubi pretty much leveled Konoha when she was only a few months old, but obviously the jinchuuriki had nothing to do with that. If anything, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi should be  _ celebrated _ , and she’s not just saying that because it’s her. If the Kyuubi wasn’t contained, it would have continued destroying Konoha, and if it had been killed it would’ve just returned at some point in the future. Jinchuuriki were just as much heroes as the Hokages were.

So she befriends the heck out of Naruto. It just...takes a little while to convince him that she isn’t interested in him romantically. Really, though, just having a friend seems to be what he wants, and it really does help them work together. Plus it’s just nice to get on with at least one of the people she has to see day in and day out, because Sasuke is so quiet and Kakashi-sensei is just...weird.

He’s very different from Iruka-sensei, and different mostly in ways that aren’t great. He’s never on time to their training sessions and never helps them on their (admittedly rudimentary) missions. But he’s their teacher and he  _ should _ be helping them.

It’s a surprise when, a couple months into their training, he actually does prove that he can be helpful.

Sasuke and Naruto are working on chakra control, and Sakura’s working on clones; their respective weaknesses. Sakura’s able to summon one clone well, which was how she was able to pass through the Academy, but trying to summon more than one...well. She’s never tried before, and it’s a very dismaying initial result.

“Why can’t I get more than one clone at a time!” she throws herself to the ground and, despite wanting to not seem like a baby, pouts. She always worked harder than everyone else in the Academy, and always managed to do well on the practical tests because of that work, but it’s infuriating that she can’t get some things even though she  _ knows _ she should. Every step is done perfectly; she works up the right amount of chakra, pushes it into the right hand-signs, everything.

And nothing shows for it.

“Kakashi-sensei,” she whines.

“Hm,” he’s actually put his book down for once, and is eyeing her in a considering way. “It might be the seal.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Hmmmm,” he draws the sound out, “I’ll ask Iruka about it, he knows more.”

“Iruka-sensei knows?” she asks, and that earns a grimace and noise from Kakashi-sensei, like he hadn’t meant to tell her. “Kakashi-sensei,” she says after a few moments of pained silence on his part, “You’re very bad at keeping secrets.”

-

Talking to Iruka-sensei about the Kyuubi is weird, because apparently he knew about it pretty much the entire time she was his student and managed to not say anything at all.

(unlike one Hatake Kakashi)

He is a little bewildered, as well, but that seems mostly due to Kakashi’s hand in everything. Which is accurate, Kakashi-sensei has been messing everything up for everyone, but Sakura isn’t going to say that to his face. At least he’s making an effort to help her, which is a little strange but not unwelcome.

Okay, more than a little strange, since apparently the seal is on her abdomen and only shows up when she’s channeling chakra. But Iruka-sensei doesn’t really need to look at it; he can tell that some of her tenketsu aren’t connected properly to her chakra pathways in part because of the seal. On the plus, it’s a simple fix to reconnect them, and that’s chakra visualization.

Simple in theory, Sakura thinks as she sits with Kakashi-sensei, ostensibly meditating to visualize her pathways and force chakra through them. She’s never been good with meditation; her mind wanders too easily. But this is important, so she tries to focus, clear her mind, and--

\--and when she blinks she’s in another place entirely, what appears to be a sewer, dim and dank. There are what might be torches in intervals along the walls, but they provide little light. Indeed, the darkness seems like something that’s alive, consuming everything not illuminated by the lights.

Perhaps she should be more afraid or wary, but Sakura isn’t. It doesn’t feel like an unsafe space, strange enough.

She steps lightly through the water, not yet able to fully walk on top of it, but able to keep herself stabilized as she moved down what was, by all appearances, a huge sewer hallway. It isn’t a long walk to find something; maybe a couple minutes before the massive bars, like an oversized jail, appear, covering the entire hall from ceiling to floor, but at such a size that Sakura could easily walk through them. The safe feeling curdles a little; she stays back from the bars, waits.

It isn’t a long wait. The hulking form appears rather suddenly, fire-orange fur and long, brittle claws grasping through the bars.

“ _ Never thought I’d see you here, kit,” _ the low voice isn’t so much audible as it is echoing in her mind. A single, massive eye opens, fixes on her like a spotlight. So, so yellow, like the yolk of a fresh chicken egg. A malevolent chicken egg, Sakura thinks.

She cocks her head at the massive beast.

The fur atop the Kyuubi’s head fluffs a little; it growls, deep in its throat. The action causes the floor under Sakura’s feet to vibrate a little. It’s supposed to be intimidating, Sakura supposes, but it’s not very, not when the fox is in its cage and it’s claws are too blunted and short to reach her.

Sakura’s brow furrows. There’s so much that she knows about the Kyuubi, but still so much she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know how and why it was trapped by Madara to use against the first Hokage, she doesn’t know what its life was like before that, she doesn’t--

“Hey,” Sakura asks, “What's your name?”

The fur stays puffed; if anything, it puffs more, and the second eye blinks open, fixing on her. It looks alarmed and confused, two looks that are strange to see on the Kyuubi. And then the fox hisses at her, scraping its claws, and seems to disappear back into the blackness of its cell.

“Can you at least let me use my chakra properly?” Sakura yells after it.

-

When she blinks again she ends up back sitting next to Kakashi-sensei, a frown on her face. “I can do it now,” she says, dusting off her knees as she stands.

Kakashi-sensei looks a little skeptical, but when she gets five perfect copies of herself standing in a row he accepts that she knows what she’s talking about. The Kyuubi, however, stays silent no matter how much gratitude Sakura throws at it.

-

Sasuke is annoying. Sakura doesn’t know  _ what _ she saw in the Uchiha, but now that there’s not an entire class to temper him and his massive ego, she’s over it. Mikoto is super nice, and occasionally she comes with Sasuke in the mornings to speak with Kakashi-sensei, but liking Sasuke just isn’t worth it. He and Naruto constantly get into fights about the stupidest things,  _ while _ they’re supposed to be training, and while Naruto does start a fair number of them Sakura’s trying to be nicer to him. Being nice to Sasuke has earned no niceness in return, but it has with Naruto. 

Speaking of friends, though.

With her introspection on the whole Sasuke thing, Sakura realizes she desperately misses Ino. They’d been friends for years before they split over Sasuke, and now that she’s grown (at least a little) she realizes how dumb and childish such a move was. Throwing away a cherished friendship over a  _ boy _ ? If she could go back in time and flick herself in the forehead she would. Right before telling herself to make up with Ino.

But she can’t go back in time, so instead she settles for doing what she knows will work on Ino: a Big Friend Gesture (BFG for short). She makes her pudding (twice, after the first recipe doesn’t set up), goes to the flower fields they used to frequent and puts together a pretty damn good bouquet (if she says so herself, and she does), and hand-makes her a card. Ino’s stubborn, and that’s a fact Sakura knows damn well, but she hopes that Ino realizes her sincerity. She hopes Ino misses her as much as she misses Ino.

-

Sakura has to drop the BFG off at the Yamanaka shop because they’re leaving on a short mission to the watch posts to the west to ferry messages. Hitode seems a little confused, but Sakura assumes she has no idea about their little feud. Hopefully they’ll patch it up and their parents will be none the wiser.

When it’s done, she tries to set it from her mind. The mission they’re running is one of the most basic, but it’s still their first out of Konoha proper and Kakashi-sensei likes to tell them horror stories of missions going wrong.

And it’s--it’s  _ fine _ . A little boring, maybe because it’s mostly just traveling in a semicircle through the forest to the guard stations, but they get to camp out overnight and Kakashi-sensei has them practicing tree-running. It’s exciting, but in a mundane way. At least it means they aren’t trying to catch Tora for the twentieth time.

They arrive back in Konoha late afternoon the next day, and after turning in their report Kakashi-sensei says they’re free for the day. Sakura really,  _ really _ wants to go find Ino and see if the BFG worked, but before she can get too far Kakashi-sensei stops her. He has the sort of pained expression on his face that she’s come to associate with talk of the Kyuubi. Great.

-

Yamanaka Ino is ready to be freaking done with teamwork for the day, but Asuma-sensei keeps making them practice formations because Shikamaru is lazing off. She! Needs! To! Find! Sakura! Asuma-sensei said that message-carrying to the interior guard posts is an overnight mission, and it has been a night since she got home to a basket of goodies from her former (but also current) best friend, so they should be back already.

Not that Ino  _ knows _ if they are, because Shikamaru keeps slacking. When Asuma-sensei finally lets them go, it’s nearly dinner time, and Ino’s pretty sure she’s never going to find Sakura and make up with her and it’s very upsetting for the simple fact that she  _ wants to _ . Sakura had always been her friend until they’d each become convinced that they were in love with Sasuke, and to stop being friends over a boy? Please, she decided she was over the whole thing by the second week after they’d stopped talking to each other. Admittedly Sasuke was and is super cool, but Ino knows the odds of her getting together with him are super low. He’s too preoccupied with looking cool and getting better grades than everyone except for Sakura.

The point is, Ino’s desperate to get her best friend back, and her teammates definitely are not helping that happen. 

So she abandons them as soon as Asuma-sensei starts to say they can leave, sprints into the city and immediately to the Tower. Best starting place, because she can just ask when and if Team Seven returned, or they might even still be there.

But they aren’t. Of course; they actually arrived fairly early in the day, so the people at the desk saw them hours before. The trail is cold, except that Ino knows Team Seven uses one of the practice fields near the one her team uses, and there’s always Sakura’s house. But there’s also another place, and that’s where she starts off with a kernel of hope in her heart. It’s sentimental, but  _ she’s _ sentimental and Sakura definitely knows that (basket of goodies as evidence).

She reaches the meadow as the clocktower on the Academy tolls out four in the afternoon; the sun is no longer harsh, but gentle and warm, and the breeze has died down somewhat. Sakura’s in the middle of the grass, surrounded by flowers that haven’t yet budded. She looks so pretty there, pink hair fanned out like a halo, that it feels like Ino’s heart stutters. Walking to the field, she was so sure of herself, so sure of what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it, but now it feels like all her words have left her.

So instead of talking, she walks over to where Sakura is, sits down next to her. Ino plucks a snowdrop that is still hanging on, tucks it into Sakura’s hair, behind her ear. A familiar gesture to both of them.

Sakura doesn’t open her eyes, but a smile tugs at her lips. “Friends?” she asks.

“Friends,” affirms Ino. She plucks a snowdrop for herself, tucks it behind her own ear, and turns her face to the slowly sinking sun, her best friend by her side.

-

“I, uh, have something to say,” Sakura stutters out one day when they’ve been abandoned by Kakashi-sensei and are stretching before leaving the practice ground for their own lives.

Naruto immediately is attentive to her, Sasuke finishes the downward dog he was doing before he turns to look at her.

Sakura forces herself to exhale, and inhale, before she says, “I want us to be able to work well as a team, and because of that, I need you to know that I am the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.” The last part of the sentence runs together a tick because she’s so anxious about actually saying it, but it seems that both Naruto and Sasuke understand her, but the dumbfounded and confused looks on their faces. But, oh god, it’s even worse waiting for them to say something in reply and she’s about ready to sprint away when their jaws start moving again.

“What the  _ hell _ ,” Sasuke says, and Naruto angrily mutters, “ _ Lan _ guage.”

Sasuke spares a moment to glare at Naruto, who sticks his tongue out in return, and refocuses on Sakura with a frown. “Are you sure?”

Sakura can’t help but roll her eyes. “Yes, I’m sure. It’s not something to joke about, Sasuke.”

Sasuke looks offended at that, but he can’t say anything before Naruto butts in, “It makes sense! Especially ‘cause it’s not me.”

“You  _ knew? _ ” Sasuke says, sounding absolutely horrified that Naruto might’ve known something before him.

“Of course. Mom wrote down that it was Sakura in the stuff she left behind. And I figured since you never said anything about it, you didn’t want to talk about it,” Naruto shrugs, as if it’s an everyday thing that one of your teammates and friends is the carrier of a giant chakra demon.

“Wait,” Sasuke says, before Sakura can even manage to try and speak, “your  _ mom _ wrote that I was the jinchuuriki _? _ ”

Naruto blinks, owlishly, his bright blue eyes unfairly pretty in the sunlight. “Of course. Mom was the container before you so she had a bunch of stuff about it that she left me.”

“Stuff?” Sakura asks, before she can help it. Holy heck. Holy  _ heck _ , that means Naruto is Minato’s son, and that makes so much sense with what Kakashi-sensei told her about him possibly being the jinchuuriki!

Naruto turns those baby blues on her, nods, “She left me notes to keep it all, to help the next jinchuuriki. I dunno why she didn’t give it to the old man, but I still have all of it.”

Sakura can’t speak because her jaw refuses to close. It feels like her brain has exploded. IT feels like she understands the  _ universe _ . Again, Sasuke is the one to talk, sputtering, “B-but Kushina was the jinchuuriki and she was the wife of the Yondaime Hokage! There’s no way they’re your parents!”

“Well, they are,” Naruto sticks his tongue out in a very adultish way, “I may not really remember her, but I know that!”

“The stuff though,” Sakura finally manages to say, still stuck on the fact that Uzumaki Kushina left stuff for  _ her _ .

Naruto brightens again, “Yeah! It’s in my apartment, we can go whenever!”

“Now,” Sakura says, a little desperately, and Naruto nods.

-

It’s a lot of stuff, it turns out. Surprisingly, it’s all fairly neat in Naruto’s apartment, but that is at least in part thanks to the extensive labeling on everything in a chicken-scratch similar to Naruto’s. The largest category is “seals”, obviously, but the second-largest is “Uzumaki”, which clearly are papers and scrolls on the Uzumaki family. There’s so many others, but in one corner of the living room is a mound of books and scrolls under the label “Kyuubi”, and that is the first place Sakura goes.

The most interesting thing in the pile are Uzumaki Mito’s diaries, yellowed and somewhat weathered with age but nonetheless  _ there _ and Sakura might be freaking out a little to be holding something written by the Kyuubi’s first jinchuuriki and one of the single most powerful shinobi ever to live in their world. Just a little.

Sasuke tries to act bored but soon enough he’s joined Sakura and Naruto on the floor, where they’ve moved from the couch in order to spread papers around. There’s so much information there, so much contained about the Kyuubi and about being the jinchuuriki, and Sakura doesn’t want to miss any of it. It is, however, a task that will take more than one afternoon, she is dismayed to realize. If there was some way she could inject all of Kushina and the Uzumaki’s knowledge of the Kyuubi straight into her brain, she would. But as it is she has to settle for making Naruto promise to let her come over again to read more. 

“Anytime!” he says brightly, as they wander the streets back in the vague direction of the Uchiha compound and Sakura’s family home.

“I’ll come too,” Sasuke snaps, as if they’re forcing him to be in their company. He has a bristled sort of look to him, like an irritated cat; it’s actually kind of cute.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Naruto says mildly. Sasuke’s hair almost physically flares (again, like a cat, and Sakura is beginning to think there’s something behind the Uchiha affinity for cats) and he half-heartedly punches Naruto’s shoulder.

And that’s how Sasuke and Naruto come to something of a truce, for the first time in their lives. Sakura would be impressed if she thought it was actually going to last.

-

Their collective lives take on something of a pattern, at least for the next couple weeks. They train or go on D-Rank missions until mid-afternoon with Kakashi-sensei, eat lunch either together or at their own homes (or, in Naruto’s case, Ichiraku) and then meet up again at Naruto’s apartment for a few hours of research.

Sakura’s compiling everything she thinks she should remember into a notebook of her own, notes on the seal and the instances in which it weakens, how Kushina and the jinchuuriki before her befriended (or at least, tried to befriend) the great fox, ways to utilize the fox’s chakra. It’s almost more information than she can handle, so she forces herself to go through it all slowly, absorbing as much of the writing as she can, copying down the important things. Naruto has read the papers so often, and so thoroughly, that he’s almost able to recite all of them from memory, which is helpful, but Sakura wants to obtain the information on her own.

That’s how she was top of the class, at least in practical stuff. Slow and thorough information gathering.

-

One particularly sunny afternoon a couple weeks after her revelation and their subsequent research-quest, Sakura finds herself sandwiched between Sasuke and Naruto on a bench in the park. It’s too early for the Academy to be out, so they practically have the whole place to themselves in which to work.

Which is funny, though, because they are getting absolutely nothing done.

They had come out from Naruto’s apartment fully intent on trying some of the stuff that Kushina had written about--how to summon the Kyuubi’s chakra intentionally, mainly--but after spending an hour or so laying on the floor of Naruto’s living room, the sun was much too tempting. They’ve been working so hard, anyway, in between training together, training alone, sifting through the papers, and going on missions with Kakashi-sensei. Sakura’s also been trying to meet up with Ino when she has the time, which is something she’s forcibly made herself make time for.

She breathes in and out, deeply, closes her eyes and lets the sun warm her. Naruto’s half-asleep next to her, and he’s so warm. Sasuke, though, is scribbling something on the notebook he brought with him, and Sakura opens her eyes and peers at him when he accidentally jabs her with his elbow.

“Sorry,” he mutters, shuffling over. She can see the notebook, and it takes her a few minutes to recognize the patterns of elaborate squares he’s filling in with tiny writing. At the top of the page he’s neatly listed the subject (tomatoes), the generation (fifth), and the number of plants (twenty-four).

“Are you making probability tables for your  _ tomatoes? _ ” Sakura asks, torn between amused and absolutely unsurprised. Sasuke’s always been meticulous about the strangest things.

“They aren’t just  _ tomatoes _ ,” Sasuke hisses, covering up the squares like it’s a secret recipe or something that he’s afraid Sakura might steal, “they’re  _ heirlooms _ and I want them to be perfect.”

“Heh, nerd,” Naruto says.

“Idiot!” Sasuke screeches back, rather like a cat. The effect is slightly ruined by his face being the color of a tomato, but Sakura decides not to mention that to him. He might have an aneurysm.

“It’s fine, we love you anyway, nerd,” Naruto says absently.

Sakura peeks at each of them in turn. Sasuke’s still red, and Naruto’s blushing just a little bit. Well, she’s  _ definitely _ not mentioning that.

-

_ It happens like this: _

_ Namikaze Minato realizes, in the middle of fighting the masked man, that Naruto will not be strong enough to undergo a sealing. Biwako still has him with Kushina, and she’s pouring every free ounce of healing chakra into him while trying to also keep Kushina alive. Kushina, who’s life force he can feel slowly ebbing away as the Kyuubi rips itself out of her. There’s no way it’ll be able to be resealed, not when he knows how much damage the unsealing has already done _

_ The whole thing, if he was allowed to sit and think it through, is absolutely perplexing. The only known users of the Sharingan are living in Konoha, and there have been absolutely no signs of anything amiss in the Uchiha clan--he would’ve damn well known. No, this means that there is something very wrong happening, and it’s not just limited to the fact that the Kyuubi is physically manifesting. Someone, somewhere has obtained a Sharingan, and it’s entirely possible that this terror might not just be confined to the Land of Fire. The Sharingan allows control over any of the Bijuu, and Minato’s nearly distracted by the thought of that. _

_ Nearly. _

_ He doesn’t miss how the man is clearly leading him away from the sealing cave, but that shows what the marauder doesn’t know; Minato can always get back to his family, no matter how tight a situation may be. _

_ - _

_ He’s in the woods west of the core of the village when he runs into Haruno Kizashi, or more aptly, Haruno Kizashi catches him as he falls out of the sky, a swipe of the Kyuubi’s tails sending him tumbling away from the village and leaving his right arm bloody. _

_ “Minato, let me get that gash,” Kizashi already has his hands lit green, and it takes no more than a swipe to stop the bleeding. “The younger Jounin and the Chuunin are coordinating the evacuation. I think Hiruzen’s in charge near the Tower.” _

_ “Thank you,” he heaves himself to his feet, intensely grateful for the people he is in charge of. “Are Mebuki and your girl safe?” _

_ Kizashi chuckles, “Mebuki’s helping Hiruzen. Sakura’s right here,” and he pulls his flak jacket away, revealing the small tufts of pink that seem strange to come from a baby’s head. “No time to find someone to care for her.” _

_ “Get yourself and her back to where the medics are,” Minato claps a hand to Kizashi’s shoulder, but before he activates one of his seals he pauses. Kizashi and Mebuki are both Senju, and Mebuki was considered for the Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki before Kushina was chosen. The chakra typing runs in their blood, and since Naruto is too weak and there’s no one else-- _

_ “Wait. There’s something I would ask for you to do for me, and know that I would not ask it out of anything other than desperation.” _

_ “Anything, Minato.” _

_ “Naruto--my son--is too weak to endure a sealing. Kushina,” his voice breaks regardless of how he has steeled himself for the possibility, “will die if I try to do so, as well. Your daughter--” _

_ Kizashi pales, but nods, firm. “Tell me where you need us.” _

_ “Get to Mebuki and Hiruzen. I’ll find you when I’m ready.” _

_ Another nod, and Kizashi runs off while Minato disappears in a yellow, lightning-like flash. He needs to trap the Kyuubi somehow, force it stationary so he can perform the sealing ritual. Using the same seal that was used for Kushina will be tricky, but-- _

_ \--but, if he uses a different seal, he might very well save the life of someone he loves more than anything. _

_ His stomach churns even as his mind races, and he redirects himself to the seal inside the sealing cave, where Biwako and Kushina still are with Naruto. Biwako nearly beheads him. Kushina is still holding on, still fiery as she always has been. _

_ “Minato,” she says, shaky and faint, “what…” _

_ “It’s okay,” he gathers her up, “you’re going to be okay. Follow us,” he tells Biwako, and with her hands still green around Naruto, she nods. _

_ The Kyuubi is still in the northern quarter of the village, ripping at the Tower and the monument as if it can destroy every trace of the first Hokage. The monument will do; he leaves his wife and son again, atop his own visage, Biwako looking over them, and flickers until he finds Hiruzen and, by extension, Mebuki and Kizashi. _

_ Mebuki is no-nonsense, and her cool head is doing wonders to keep Minato calm as they follow him to the monument, to his own family. _

_ Naruto is finally sleeping in Kushina’s trembling arms, Biwako holding onto her shoulders to steady her and keep a gentle flow of chakra connected to her. “Minato,” Kushina says again, a little stronger, “what is happening?” _

_ So Minato steels himself, and tells them. _

_ - _

_ It’s difficult, he stops to think as he’s finishing the hand-seals to place half of the Kyuubi’s chakra into Haruno Sakura, to do something he knows will kill him. It’s difficult to know he’ll have to say goodbye at the end of this. _

_ Kushina’s hand is curled around his arm as he turns to her, her chakra chains pinning the remainder of the Kyuubi’s chakra. Like a mantra, she has been saying, “No, no, no, don’t do this,” ever since he started. But there’s no stopping now, and Minato leans to his wife, presses their foreheads together ever so briefly. _

_ “It will allow you some time, love, to be with him,” Minato smooths a hand over Naruto’s sparse white-blond hair. _

_ “But you,” she’s already crying, her hair sticking to him from the blood and the sweat, “don’t do this to me, Minato, don’t leave me. Don’t leave us.” _

_ “Even if Tsunade was here,” he says, and can’t finish it. The pain is radiating out from his abdomen, and the chains of Kushina’s chakra won’t hold for much longer. “I love you. Forever.” _

_ Kushina’s still crying as he weaves the last hand-signs, curled around Naruto. The new seal blossoms on her abdomen, knitting together the skin there, a perfect match to the seal on Haruno Sakura’s small, perfect stomach. _

_ He musters enough strength to kiss Kushina, kiss his wife, and kiss his son’s forehead for the first and last time. Mebuki helps him stay up as his strength fails, and he tries to convey as much of the gratitude that he can with the squeeze of an arm around her shoulders. _

_ “Thank you, little one,” he murmurs to Sakura, still sleeping in her father’s arms. “You’ve saved us all.” _

_ And with that, Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure, husband and newly a father, passes on. _

-

“Why  _ would _ the Fourth split the Kyuubi’s chakra in two?” Sasuke asks in between doodling tomato flowers in his notebook.

Naruto says, matter-of-fact. “Mom wrote that he did it to break up the Kyuubi’s chakra so it wouldn’t overwhelm Sakura and it wouldn’t kill her with the resealing. And, since the whole Kyuubi didn’t die when she passed away there’s nothing to worry about.”

“What  _ did _ happen to the other half of the Kyuubi once she passed away?” Sakura muses out loud.

They consider that for a few seconds, before Sasuke shrugs. “The chakra is probably just out there somewhere. It can’t reform right now, but if the other half ever is released it will be able to.”

“Okay, okay, this is getting way too specific for me,” Naruto says, “wherever it is, you can’t access it, bottom line. I was looking at the seal--it’s an Uzumaki one! Mom had papers on it--and it does let you access the Kyuubi’s chakra. Somehow. At least that’s what the papers said.”

Sakura feels like she’s having an epiphany. “Yes! Yes it does! It happened once--well, not really? It’s hard to explain.”

“What,” says Sasuke.

“Well, back when we first started training with Kakashi-sensei he found out about the Kyuubi and when I was having trouble making clones he had me meditate and I ended up in this weird sewer place,” Sakura says, quickly so that Sasuke and Naruto won’t ask questions or otherwise interrupt, “and the Kyuubi was there. I could talk to it and I think that’s how I can use its chakra.”

Sasuke’s face is stuck on surprise, but Naruto’s quick to keep up. “That makes sense! It’s probably the seal that allows you to talk to it and see it,” he says, ever enthusiastic, “I bet you can do so much cool stuff with its help.”

Sasuke dumbly nods, and they resume digging through the papers.

“ _ Her help _ ,” a low voice growls to Sakura after a few moments, and she jumps, dropping the scroll she was reading through.

“Sakura?” Sasuke asks, looking somewhat alarmed. The scroll did land on him.

“She’s female,” Sakura says, pressing her hands to her belly like she’s pregnant or something. A satisfied rumble fills her, almost like the purr of a massive cat. “The Kyuubi. She’s a  _ girl _ .”

-

It’s during one of their afternoons sprawled on the floor of Naruto’s living room that Kakashi appears in the open window and asks, “What are you three doing?” He can’t even keep the suspicion out of his voice, which is probably the most hilarious thing.

“Plotting world domination,” Sasuke says in a bored tone.

“Figuring out the best way to burn down the Tower,” Naruto adds, not even looking up from the scroll he’s scrutinizing. Kakashi looks like he wants to hit himself in the forehead. 

“Why are you here, sensei?” Sakura asks.

“We,” Kakashi says, pointed and deadpan, “have a mission. Five minutes and you had all better be in the Tower.” And he disappears, probably more confused than when he appeared.

-

It’s officially their first mission out of the Land of Fire, and Sakura is not thrilled at all. The Land of Waves is apparently very beautiful, but Tazuna is mean and looks at her like she’s lesser because she’s a girl. Sakura knows that some of the most powerful shinobi in the world are women and she’s fully capable of becoming one, but it’s hard to maintain a positive outlook when people are assholes.

Especially when said asshole also turns out to be a  _ liar _ on top of everything. It’s easy to tell that Kakashi is furious with the whole thing, but there’s really nothing he can do, especially not when he’s bedridden at the man’s house. He does try to make the best out of it, though, having them learn to use chakra to walk on vertical surfaces and water, but it’s clear that he doesn’t like the situation they’re in.

Sakura doesn’t like it either, but that’s mostly because the enemy they’re facing is pretty damn terrifying. Momochi Zabuza is a name that Sakura has never heard of, and now that she’s met the Demon of the Mist she wishes she’d never, ever left the Land of Fire, never heard of him. It’s strange, that she’s considered to be a container for a demon yet a man who claims the title for himself terrifies her. There’s all kinds in the shinobi world, though, and she supposes she should try to get used to it.

That thinking definitely doesn’t make her feel better.

-

Everything feels wrong the one day they go to the bridge sans Naruto (because he exhausted himself after finally figuring out how to correctly channel chakra to his legs and feet), but in a completely inexplicable way. She doesn’t know if she should tell Kakashi-sensei, but Kakashi-sensei has been pretty preoccupied with...well, something. She won’t even pretend to understand what goes on in his mind ever. Probably thinking about Iruka-sensei or something.

That thought derails her worry, at least for a little bit, but that’s when the fog really creeps in. There’s something eerie about the fog, ever since Zabuza first materialized out of it, and the worry and the bad feelings come back.

Five minutes later--well, her gut is apparently  _ very _ trustworthy.

-

Kakashi-sensei tells her to stay with Tazuna; okay, she can do that as much as she  _ hates _ him. Less likely to die if she stays out of Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza’s way. Hah, that’s a fun thought. But then Kakashi okays Sasuke’s challenge to fight the newcomer, Haku, and that’s both terrifying and annoying.

More terrifying, once the new shinobi summons giant mirrors made of ice to trap Sasuke. Great. Great! She’s half expecting Naruto to appear and do something stupid like try to help Sasuke and--

God _ damn _ it, Naruto.

-

So, yeah, Sakura’s a little upset once Sasuke’s been pierced by several dozen senbon and Naruto’s “help” has been anything but, but she doesn’t expect the kunai she throws to literally shatter one of Haku’s mirrors. It’s probably the little lick of reddish-orange in the chakra she pumps into it; some sort of strength given to her by adrenaline and the growling demon in her belly. It’s enough, though, to distract everyone long enough for Sasuke and Naruto to tackle Haku and for the other man to appear at the end of the bridge.

His name’s Gato, Sakura learns afterward, and he’s the entire reason Zabuza and Haku and all of the other mercenaries are there, but at the time her only thought is  _ Great, more of them _ . Kakashi-sensei is looking kind of cagey, but then Zabuza goes and starts lopping the other mercenary’s heads. At that point, Sakura sees no danger to herself or Tazuna, so she abandons him to join Kakashi-sensei and Naruto. Sasuke’s still pinning Haku down with his entire body, but it’s safe to say that they’re all at least staring at what is happening at the other end of the bridge.

And that is absolute slaughter, as if the man is well and truly possessed. He pays no mind to the knives and swords impaling him, the blood slicking his body.

Haku throws Sasuke off him, makes a run for his partner, but it is Kakashi-sensei that stops him, holds him and only lets him go when Gato is dead, his head drifting somewhere in the sea surrounding them. By that point, Zabuza falls, and the remaining mercenaries scatter, some to the sea, some fleeing up the bridge. Haku goes to Zabuza, and the rest trail after him, silent in the fog.

“Why?” is all the boy manages to say, dropping to his knees next to Zabuza, who is somehow still alive. Sakura wants to look away, but finds she can’t.

“You’re free,” Zabuza says, lifting up one hand to cup Haku’s cheek, a loving gesture that seems out of place with the violence they just witness. “ _ Be _ free.”

The hand drops, and Momochi Zabuza goes still.

-

Haku is completely numb. Sakura isn’t sure if he’s even moved since they made it back to Tazuna’s house, but she does now know that Zabuza had been like a father to him. She’s never experienced that; Kakashi-sensei has, she thinks, and Sasuke in a way, but Sasuke still had the rest of his family after his father left. Haku has no one, now that Zabuza’s dead, and Sakura can’t even  _ imagine _ what he feels. And that just makes her feel worse that they have to leave and return to Konoha so soon after it all happens. Tsunami makes it clear that she is glad to take care of Haku for however long she needs, however long  _ he _ needs. Any complaints that Tazuna might have are not listened to.

(Sakura likes Tsunami)

But still, Sakura doesn’t like that they’re leaving so soon while Haku is still mired in grief, so the day they’re due to start the journey back to Konoha, she slips into his room and hands him a paper. They’d talked about it last night, her, Naruto and Sasuke, and they’d made the decision together.

“Write to us--and come visit,” Sakura says, making sure Haku takes the paper. She offers as best a smile as she can. “We’re here for you.”

-

Returning home, after everything that happened in the Land of Waves, is probably the most anticlimactic thing that has happened in Sakura’s life. Everything goes back to normal immediately after they give their oral report and Kakashi-sensei dismisses them to the sunny day. Sakura wanders home blindly with her pack, wondering what the hell she’s supposed to do now. Kakashi-sensei said they’d get the rest of the day off (which...made sense) but they’d be meeting tomorrow at the usual time at their usual training ground. 

Great, back to the usual grind.

She finds herself wandering toward the fields they used to play at, aimless but perhaps driven by some unconscious drive. There’s no one there; it’s early enough in the day that the Academy isn’t out. She drops her pack and flops to the ground, using the bag as a pillow of sorts as she stares up into the blue, blue sky. It’s just like her birthday. Something that turns out to be life changing, but not necessarily in a good way. In a confusing way, more like.

It just makes her feel like something else is going to happen, like these things must come in threes. Ughhh, but it does no good to think about it! She can’t stop herself from thinking about it, though, watching the clouds drifting by.

Maybe she can ask Naruto to stop by his apartment and pick up some stuff to read up on. Kakashi-sensei and Naruto did mention that she would be able to access the Kyuubi’s chakra and maybe it’s time to learn how to do that.

“Sakura,” a familiar voice sing-songs, and Sakura feels rather than sees Ino drop down next to her. “When did you get back? Asuma-sensei said you guys were still in the Land of Waves.”

“Couple hours ago,” Sakura replies, finally looking away from clouds and the sky to the corner of her vision that isfilled with Ino’s silky, blonde hair. She took her usual ponytail out and is finger combing her hair, an act that for some reason is making Sakura’s mouth go very dry. “Anything happen while we were gone?”

“No, it was boooo-ring,” Ino complains. “Konoha is lame without you here.”

Sakura forces out a laugh, and tries to ignore the way butterflies seem to flutter in her stomach and heat seems to rise on her cheeks.

-

“So,” Kakashi-sensei says, eyeing each of them in turn like they’ve done something bad, “the Chuunin Exam.”

They all stay silent, though Sakura can feel Naruto all but vibrating next to her. The thought of moving up the shinobi chain, at least a little, is fairly exciting even to her, but she’s not very sure any of them are ready for it. If their time in the Land of Waves taught her anything, it was that she wasn’t sure of her control of both her chakra, and the Kyuubi.

“It begins next week on Monday, and I have submitted your names,” Kakashi-sensei say, raising a finger, “but! Any of you are free to choose not to take the Exam; you may simply not show up, and you’ll be fine. Consider this step carefully,” he warns, and in a solemn enough tone that even Naruto looks concerned, “because the Chuunin Exam might potentially be the last thing you ever do.”

Sakura gulps, and Kakashi-sensei looks at each of them again. “Dismissed; I have things to do tomorrow, so don’t show up.”

And he disappears, just like that.

Only seconds pass before Sasuke is up and running, too. Probably home to tell his mom. Naruto still seems frozen, and Sakura cautiously pokes him.

“Ah!” he screeches, nearly falls to the ground in utter surprise. “Sakura!”

She can’t help a giggle, at that. It breaks the ice a little, though. “C’mon, lets go get ramen. My parents are both on missions.”

They do get paid for the missions they do, and while most of them aren’t much, their mission in Wave did get bumped up to A-Rank and the Hokage paid them the difference out of pocket. What a difference it was, too. Sakura could probably buy her own apartment with the money she was given, but she’ll settle for buying Naruto ramen.

They’re both pretty quiet on the way to Ichiraku, still mulling over the news Kakashi-sensei dropped on them, but the silence gives way to easy conversation about the Exam as soon as they’re seated with steaming bowls in front of them. Neither of them know more than what Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei ever told them, so it’s a lot of unknowns.

“I think we should do it,” Naruto eventually says.

“Why?” Sakura asks.

His tone is thoughtful as he orders a second bowl, and Sakura can tell that he’s actually given it some thought. “Well, even if we don’t become chuunin, we’ll learn how to work together more, and we have to challenge ourselves in order to become better, and the exam will challenge us.”

“Hm,” Sakura considers that. Hard to argue with logic like that.

-

The first part of the exam is easy. Of  _ course _ it’s easy, though Ino has the audacity to possess her and copy her answers, and she’s pretty sure Sasuke is also using his Sharingan or some other dirty trick to copy her answers as well. Naruto, at least, has accepted he doesn’t know the answers to anything, because Sakura caught a glimpse of his test and it looks blank.

Oh well, it doesn’t even matter because they  _ make it _ , and that deserves another dinner at Ichiraku, this time with Sasuke dragged along. Those noodles taste like victory.

-

But the next morning the sense of victory is replaced with anxiety as they’re released into the so-called “Forest of Death,” told to survive on their own wits for three days,  _ and _ steal a scroll from one of the other teams. Great. Great! They’re gonna die, probably.

Sakura really wishes she had taken the extracurricular basic medic training at the Academy as they head off from their gate, into the trees. It would make her feel a lot better about this entire situation.

And, boy, is she wishing even harder on the second day once they encounter the creepy genin (who...obviously is not a genin, not with that skill set) from the Land of Grass, but then there’s no time to even consider what-ifs because she’s dragging a half-conscious Naruto and an unconscious Sasuke to try and find somewhere safe. God, she can’t catch a break, but she doesn’t even stop to worry about it all. She focuses on getting them somewhere relatively safe, using her shinobi-issue medic kit to patch up all of their scrapes.

She should probably scout, make sure there’s no immediate threats, but it’s as much as she can do to pop a soldier pill and stay alert as the deep of night passes. 

“Hey,” Sakura whispers at some point to the brisk night air, poking one finger into her stomach, “I could use a little help here, freeloader.”

-

Sakura blinks out of a doze as the sun is just beginning to light up the forest. She’s drowsy for a minute, then forces herself to full wakefulness. Damn it. Should have stayed awake instead of falling asleep; something could have happened. Naruto is still asleep, though he starts waking up when she pokes him. Sasuke, on the other hand, is still unconscious, and that really worries her. It didn’t look like the Grass shinobi had given him a head injury, but at this point Sakura isn’t quite sure of anything.

She pops another soldier pill and chews on a rations bar while stretching. Naruto is awake enough to eat as well, and so she leaves him to watch over Sasuke as she goes to scout out the area they’re in. They are fairly far into the forest, but the tower that is their goal is still quite a ways away. If they travel for the rest of the day they’ll make it before it gets too dark, but that’s contingent on them finding not one, but  _ two _ scrolls to make up for the one they had but lost and the one they still would’ve needed.

A yelp pulls her from her strategizing, and she realizes with horror that it came from their camp. The muscles in her legs burn as she heads back at top speed, and drops down to find Naruto in front of Sasuke’s still-prone form, a kunai in one hand, facing three genin with music-note headbands. Land of Sound, her mind supplies automatically.

“Oh, another weakling,” the first of the genin says with a scoff. “Whatever, it’s not as if  _ you _ will be any help to your teammates.”

Sakura can hear her blood start pumping, and she doesn’t know if it’s the anger or the adrenaline chasing the tiredness out of her, or if--

\--the red glow of a familiar but very strange chakra envelopes her hands, streaking over her arms and legs. The chakra burns through her and it’s both painful and invigorating, energizing muscles she wasn’t aware of, making her feel wide awake. “What the--” the Sound genin begins, but before he can say anything else Sakura’s slammed a fist right into his abdomen and sent him flying back into the forest, away from all of their teammates.

“Sakura?” Naruto asks, his voice dazed.

That snaps her back to the present, sort of, but the Kyuubi’s chakra is still running through her veins and muscles and breath and it feels like every nerve in her body is on fire and she’s barely in control. It’s like she can anticipate everything before it happens; the muscles in her legs tense. “Above you!” she snaps, barreling forward to the kunoichi as the third shinobi circles around toward Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto is with it enough to send out a few clones and redirect the Sound shinobi away from Sasuke while Sakura sends the Sound kunoichi flying away as well, after ripping the scroll away from her. Then she goes for the last one, knocks him into unconsciousness.

And she stops, absolutely exhilarated and absolutely terrified of all that she’s done, the deep chuckle of the Kyuubi echoing through her.

“ _ Good job, kit, _ ” the fox’s voice is low, amused as she draws her chakra back through the cage that separates the two of them, severing the tenuous connection. Sakura snaps back to full awareness, sees Naruto and Sasuke staring at her, the scroll clenched in her left hand, and faints.

-

When she comes to she’s on Naruto’s back and they’re slowly making their way through the forest, Sasuke in the lead. Sakura tries to ask what’s happened, but it mostly just comes out as a low moan thanks to the sharp headache making it difficult to keep her eyes open.

“Whoa, Sasuke!” Naruto stops, and once Sasuke has stopped as well he sets Sakura down. The sharpness of the headache is going down rapidly, but Sakura kind of feels like she’s been chewed up and spit out by the Kyuubi itself.

“What happened?” she finally asks, when they’re all sitting on the ground.

Naruto and Sasuke share a look that she can’t parse. “I’m guessing it was the Kyuubi? You fainted and Sasuke woke up,” Naruto slowly says, “and we got the Scroll of Heaven from the Sound nin you punched first. They had a couple of them. Now we’re just--heading to the tower.” He points, and through the trees Sakura can see they are close, close enough that hopefully she can walk there on her own. Naruto does put an arm on her back to help support her, and they limp the rest of the way to the tower, where a chuunin sends them to an unoccupied room. 

Sakura sits on the floor, exhausted, while Sasuke and Naruto let the scrolls roll open, the Scroll of Heaven crossing overtop of the Scroll of Earth. Smoke billows out, obscuring whoever or whatever has been summoned, though from the size of the smoke cloud it must be a person. The smoke slowly disperses, and standing on the seal created by the scrolls is Iruka-sensei.

Sakura has never been so excited to see someone in her life, let alone one of her teachers. Iruka-sensei is the perfect person, too, after what they’ve gone through.

Their excitement to see him is perfectly encapsulated by Naruto immediately jump-hugging him and holding on like a baby monkey holds on to its mother. Sakura would do the same, if she had the willpower and energy to get off the floor. Sasuke looks and probably feels the same.

“Oh, you made it,” Iruka-sensei says, as if it wasn’t obvious from their surroundings. Though he is still holding a pen, and the glasses he usually wears when he’s grading papers are pushed up onto the top of his head. They probably caught him unaware.

The real question, though, is why is Iruka-sensei appearing from their scrolls? It seems a weird choice, though the whole scroll thing itself is questionable and doesn’t seem to have any real purpose behind it.

“Naruto, let me go, the summoning will take you back with me if you don’t,” Iruka says, prying Naruto’s arms off of him. He then takes a moment to consider each of them, how grimy and tired they look, and makes a concerned noise in his throat. “You did complete this part of the exam, but are you all okay?”

“Nothing a week of sleep can’t fix,” Sakura says around a yawn.

That earns a smile. “Well, you should be able to soon. There are a couple more hours before this part of the exam ends, and then I believe there will be a longer break. You all did well--oh, no, it’s ending--good luck!!”

And with that he disappears in smoke, pen clattering to the floor.

“I wish he would come back,” Naruto says a little sadly, and Sakura can’t help but agree.

-

Sakura’s so exhausted Kakashi can see it as soon as he arrives at the tower, and he’s half tempted to make her withdraw. And that’s before he even sees the markings on Sasuke’s neck and, wowie, he recognizes that.

It just...is really not his day. Or his team’s day, in general.

He’s thinking a mile a minute while Sasuke fights one of the genin from the Land of Sound. He doesn’t want to (and probably shouldn’t) leave Naruto and Sakura alone, but he also wants to put a containing seal on Sasuke to prevent Orochimaru’s seal from affecting him,  _ and _ he has to stay in the building in case something happens. It’s a no-win situation all around; he sends a clone to find an empty room and slides over to where Gai is waiting with his team to ask for a favor.

-

Sakura knows that she’s probably going to lose to Ino when they’re drawn to fight each other, and she desperately hopes that Ino doesn’t use her Mind-Body Switch. Not only does she not want to deal with that, she also doesn’t know how it would work with the Kyuubi--the potential for disaster seems very high. But she doesn’t really want to withdraw, on the off-chance that she does actually win. The very, very low off-chance.

She just hopes that Kakashi-sensei will be quick with Sasuke, because if someone has to take her to the hospital, she wants it to be him. Gai-sensei, who she has met maybe twice before, is nice and all, but she doesn’t want to touch that green spandex.

Ino looks about as tired as Sakura feels as they trudge down the stairs to the floor of the hall. Maybe she’ll forfeit; but she doesn’t really want to. Even if they’re best friends again, that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped competing. They’re just competing for different things now, and Sakura doesn’t want to lose.

The arena is quiet when they make it down, other than a yell of “Kick her butt, Sakura!” from Naruto. The judge, Hayate, gestures for them to stand in front of him; an instant later his hand drops, and Sakura slides into form. Ino does the same, and they’re off.

-

All told, a double-knockout was probably the best outcome possible for their match. Sakura’s pretty loopy as Kakashi-sensei takes her to the hospital (where, he told her, Sasuke already is), but she is cohesive enough to realize that Ino didn’t use any of her ninjutsu; the entire fight was just them and their fists.

“Naruto better win,” she tells him as he leaves and a medic-nin loads her up onto a gurney.

“He will,” Kakashi-sensei says. She has vague recollections, later, of Kakashi-sensei ruffling her hair before he leaves, telling her he’s proud.

-

The hospital is quiet and soothing, and Sakura feels bad that she’s so excited to have a break from all the ninja life. They’ve been going practically nonstop since they returned from their mission in the Land of Waves, and Sakura is exhausted from it. She’s barely had time to take care of herself, and she’s let so many other things fall to the wayside. Maybe she’ll finally get to clean her room.

Her parents come and go, dropping off a couple books and the promise to pick her up the next day. Chakra exhaustion, and a stress fracture in her right ankle. She wasn’t complaining about having to stay; it meant free food and some peace.

She was reading one of the books her parents had brought when the peace, annoyingly, was shattered. And not by her teammates, or Ino, or even Kakashi-sensei. No, a strange old man appeared in the cracked open window, pushed it open and hopped into the room and, without introducing himself or explaining why he broke into her hospital room, bellowed, “So you’re the jinchuuriki, eh?”

“I,” she pauses, “what.”

“I don’t know how I didn’t realize it,” the crazy man says, shaking his head. She can’t figure out if the lines on his face are tattoos or kabuki makeup. “Though I would say you don’t look familiar. Were you not at the Academy when I tested everyone?”

“What?” she says again, deadpan, and that makes him look at her at little more seriously, “who are you.”

He does the fish-mouth thing for a few seconds, as if in disbelief, sputters, “You don’t know who I am?”

“No,” she says.

“God, what has Kakashi been teaching you,” he says, probably to himself, but Sakura can’t help but reply, “Practical things.”

Oh, that looked like it physically pained him. Sakura congratulates herself on that, feeling only a tiny bit bad about hurting his feelings. But, then again, he was the one who broke into her hospital room.

“Wait, for that matter, why didn’t Kakashi tell me that it was you?” he started muttering to himself, a strange look in his eyes. “And what about Iruka? He ought to have known, with his skills.”

“Do you mind going away?” Sakura asks when he keeps muttering to himself, apparently now ignoring her.

He looks at her as if she has personally affronted him (and she probably has), and disappears back out the window.

Finally, Sakura thinks, relaxing back against the pillows, some peace and quiet.

-

Iruka is having a perfectly nice day without any interruptions; he trained with Kurenai, cleaned the bathroom and did laundry, met with Anko for lunch, and is currently grading papers on the balcony of his apartment. It’s sunny and perfect and he thinks the day can’t possibly go wrong.

But then the Sannin Jiraiya appears on the railing, and leans into his personal space smelling like pond slime and alcohol.

“Iruka,” he says, “why wasn’t that Sakura girl in class when I checked your kids?”

“Sick,” Iruka says. 

“You didn’t teach them about me? Why didn’t you do that? She didn’t know who I was when I went to the hospital,” Jiraiya whines.

“No,” Iruka says, not looking up from the papers he’s grading, “we started talking about Tsunade and that took the entire week I had set aside. Sorry.”

“Tsunade?” he asks in a strangled tone.

Iruka does look up, pushes his glasses up his nose, “Everyone was much more interested in her; I did bring up you and Orochimaru, but the kids wanted to learn about Tsunade so that’s what we did.”

Jiraiya makes a strangled noise and disappears. Iruka shrugs, and goes back to his grading.

-

_ Tsunade _ . The crazy man with the white hair who is apparently the Sannin Jiraiya is going to find  _ Tsunade _ ! And Naruto gets to go with him!! Sakura would be jealous, but the thought of spending any amount of time with the man, especially since he spent the last month trying to cajole her into letting him train her.

Oh, no, that did  _ not _ happen. Sakura spent the month between the second and third parts of the exam doing absolutely nothing--it was bliss. Though she probably could have trained a bit, especially considering how the third part of the exam turned out.

Yeah, Sasuke’s still in the hospital, and Sakura’s pretty sure his mom is going to single-handedly destroy the Land of Sound (and maybe the Hokage) now that she knows what Orochimaru did. Sakura kind of wants to be Uchiha Mikoto. Or like, Uchiha Mikoto combined with Tsunade. The  _ dream _ of ass-kicking awesomeness.

Anyway, Mikoto is apparently leading a team to infiltrate...something. It’s classified and Sakura only knows because her parents are gossips. She tells Sasuke, though, because Sasuke deserves to know. Itachi has probably already told him, anyway. 

So it’s just the two of them, but really it’s just her because Sasuke is in the hospital. In any case, she gets to train alone with Kakashi-sensei and, whether her teammates believe her or not, it’s a good, educational time. He seems to have mellowed out somewhat, and Sakura isn’t sure if that’s because he trusts her the most out of the three of them, or if it’s because of the increasing frequency with which she sees him with Iruka-sensei. She’s pretty sure there’s something there, though she’ll never ask Kakashi-sensei about it. Anyway, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of  _ her _ existence, so she focuses on training.

And, in her humble opinion, she does very well in that training. Kakashi-sensei has her learning a variety of things, but mostly her training consists of strengthening her body and getting better at the physical aspects of fighting. So, taijutsu. He has her memorize some new formations and try out some nontraditional styles that work better with how she fights and how she wants to fight.

As unsurprising as it is, not having Sasuke and Naruto there to distract herself or Kakashi-sensei is beneficial for both of them. Much of Kakashi-sensei’s attention in the past was focused on making sure her teammates got along, or otherwise making sure Sasuke was placated and Naruto was understanding everything they were doing. It does wonders for both of them and their anxiety levels.

-

It’s only a couple days before Naruto is due to get back that Sakura gets the letter. She’s sitting on the floor of her room, looking through some papers and scrolls that Naruto had let her borrow, when her mom knocks on the door and lets herself in.

“Letter for you,” her mom hands it to her absently before disappearing back down the hall, sifting through the other mail.

A letter? Sakura carefully turns it; no return address, just her name, marked in the Land of Fire to be sent to Konohagakure to the shinobi mail depot. From someone who knows about the shinobi system, obviously, and she can’t think of anyone other than--

\--oh god, please don’t be from Jiraiya, she thinks as she opens the envelope and slides the folded paper out of it. But, no, the handwriting is too neat and the language is far too formal to be Jiraiya, plus Naruto would definitely stop him from sending her a letter, so she has no qualms reading it.

It’s from Haku.  _ Haku _ ! She abandons any pretense of reading the scroll she had opened and instead throws herself on her bed and completely unfolds the letter to read. A thank you to her for telling him he could write, updates on living with Tsunami, Tazuna, and Inari, how the Land of Waves has changed since the bridge was able to open.

Just from the writing Sakura can tell that Haku is nearly so grief stricken as he had been. It’s heartening to notice, especially in so short a time. Even more heartening is the note at the end of the letter, that he’ll be passing through Konoha to the Land of Tea in a couple of weeks, and if her and her teammates are free, he would like to see them.

“Paper,” Sakura mutters, fumbling through her desk until she finds a blank sheet and a pen. It can’t just be a reply of “Yes, please, we would like to see you, too,” so it ends up being nearly three pages of writing that she gets down to the mail depot just before it closes for the evening. It feels like there’s a thrumming electricity running through her on her walk home, an excitement that isn’t solely because of Haku’s impending visit.

-

Ino’s running errands for her mom when she finds Sakura wandering the streets of Konoha in the setting sun. She’s completely distracted, and doesn’t even notice Ino’s following her for about five minutes, and even then she’s obviously surprised when she turns around.

“Okay there, Sakura?” Ino asks. She doesn’t know if she should be amused or worried.

“Yeah,” Sakura replies in a vague voice.

An intervention is obviously needed. Ino grabs her hand and jerks her around in the opposite direction. It’s finally summer, so the food stands have been setting up around the river and Ino knows for a fact that there’s a takoyaki stand because Choji has already been there a dozen times. And she wants takoyaki, damn it.

“Wha--” Sakura does follow, but looks extremely confused, “Ino, what are you doing?”

“I’m bored and my mom gave me money to buy wrapping paper so,” she slows as they reach the river park, where a surprising amount of people are also wandering. “Food.”

What follows is the best evening Ino has had in a while, especially considering all they do is eat and talk. But it’s with  _ Sakura _ , and everything has always been better with Sakura. Hmmm, that’s something to dwell on later. Yeah, definitely later and not while they’re eating shave ice and Sakura’s close enough that their shoulders are pressed together and Ino can’t think of anything but that.

-

Sakura’s yanked out of a very pleasant dream involving Ino to find Naruto outside her bedroom window, fogging up the glass. He’s trying to say something to her but the fact that the glass is separating them  _ and _ he has his entire face pressed against the glass makes him impossible to understand. Sakura closes the curtains, changes her clothes at top speed, and opens the window so quickly Naruto almost falls onto the peony bush below.

“What’s up,” she says, and it’s not lost on her that Naruto appearing in her window after being gone a month has become normal. “Thought you weren’t getting back for a couple days.”

“Yeah, baa-sa--uh, Tsunade wanted to get back,” Naruto says, “c’mon, ya gotta go to the Tower.”

“Why?” she asks, even as she climbs out of the window after him. Her parents have gotten used to it.

“Well, Tsunade said she wanted to meet you, and she needs to know about what happened to Sasuke and I wasn’t there for that,” Naruto begins, and he keeps up a constant stream of chatter as they wander down the mostly-empty streets of the village.

Empty as the village may be, the Tower is bustling with activity, and Naruto pretty much immediately disappears in the madness even as a woman with dark hair and a long-suffering sort of air around her commandeers Sakura up to the Hokage’s office. Sakura’s pretty sure she’s never seen the woman before, but she seems to know what she’s doing.

And to Sakura’s chagrin, Jiraiya is the first person she sees when she steps into the Hokage’s office (well, more is  _ pushed _ into the office by the dark-haired woman), and he immediately grins at her and crows, “Yes! Here she is!”

Sakura probably shouldn’t meet their new Hokage with such a disgusted look on her face, but she can’t help the exaggerated grimace.

“Aw, don’t be like that, kid, you’ll learn to like me,” he says, still somehow grinning, but the woman behind the desk scoffs and for the first time Sakura looks at her.

Senju Tsunade. Tall, blonde,  _ very _ well-endowed, with a rakish sort of smile that does funny things to Sakura’s stomach. Konoha’s new Hokage. Sakura’s brain seems to be shorting as she looks between Jiraiya and Tsunade.

“C’mon, Tsunade, if I’m going to be teaching her--” Jiraiya starts, but Tsunade cuts him off with a well-placed look and a derisive laugh.

“Hell, no, Jiraiya, you are not training this poor girl,” the Sannin Tsunade bellows, “I wouldn’t subject  _ Naruto _ to that for any longer. Sakura, is that right?”

Sakura nods dumbly. This? This is Tsunade? In retrospect Sakura isn’t really sure what she did expect, but it definitely wasn’t...this. “Haruno Sakura,” she adds, probably needlessly.

“Perfect! Shizune!” Tsunade bellows again, even louder if possible. The dark-haired woman who let Sakura in opens the door, one eyebrow raised.

“Shout a little louder, maybe the entire village will hear you,” Shizune says. Sakura would gasp, but she’s pretty sure that Tsunade is smirking a little. “What do you need?”

“Get those releases I told you about ready, and pull Uchiha Sasuke’s medical file,” the switch to seriousness in Tsunade’s tone nearly gives Sakura whiplash, “Sakura, Naruto said you saw what Orochimaru did to Sasuke. I was hoping you would be able to tell me what happened; it might give me more information.”

So, extremely confused, Sakura sits in the only other empty chair (which is conveniently on the other side of the room from Jiraiya) and spends the next fifteen minutes explaining what had happened in the Forest of Death. By the time she’s done, and any questions Tsunade has are asked and answered, Shizune reappears with a stack of papers.

A few more minutes pass, Shizune and Tsunade conferring in low voices while Tsunade writes on one of the papers Shizune brought. Sakura...has no idea what’s going on.

“Sakura,” Tsunade finally says, and she snaps to attention, barely stopping herself from actually standing up.

“Yes, Tsunade-sama?” she asks, with only the barest hint of stutter.

“How’d you like to be my student?” Tsunade asks, again with that rakish grin.

Sakura’s mouth is suddenly very dry, perhaps because she can’t get her jaw to close. Tsunade? The  _ Sannin _ ?  _ Her teacher? _ Her brain apparently isn’t working again, nor is her jaw, but she does manage a weak nod.

“Told ya,” Tsunade says to Jiraiya, something like a smirk pulling at her lips.

Sakura doesn’t look at him. He’s probably just pouting, anyway.

-

They’re at the meetup point Sakura had told Haku about early, but only because Tsunade had meetings all morning with the Council and so their usual morning lessons--the medical ones that Naruto took too--were cancelled. Normally Naruto would also meet Kakashi-sensei, but it is Friday and there are no classes at the Academy, meaning it’s pretty safe to assume he’s going to spend the entire day with Iruka-sensei. So Naruto’s skipping that, too.

Instead they’re sitting in the flower field, Sakura making flower wreaths while Naruto piles pieces of grass onto his own knees. Who knows when Haku’s going to show up; they’re just happy to have a morning off. Tsunade’s rather...intense.

Sakura’s dropped two poppy wreaths onto Naruto’s unruly hair before there’s movement at the other end of the field, under the trees that border the flowers. She doesn’t say anything for a few moments, until she’s sure, but then she nudges Naruto with her elbow. His head pops up like a dandelion, and almost immediately he’s up and running.

“Haku!” Naruto nearly tumbles down the hill in his haste to get to the older boy. Haku’s hair is longer than Sakura remembers, and the kimono he’s wearing is new; he looks...happier. Maybe even as happy as Sakura thinks he deserves to be, or at least getting close. He catches Naruto in a tight hug, and Sakura as well once she reaches them.

“Where is Sasuke-kun?” he asks after they’ve all released each other. The concern in his voice is genuine, but more remarkable is that he lets that concern show on his face. Time does seem to have healed him, at least a little.

“Sick,” Naruto says reproachfully, as if Sasuke somehow made the conscious decision to get food poisoning and it obviously didn’t happen because he ate bad chicken in addition to still recovering from the exams.

“Food poisoning,” Sakura helpfully adds. “How long are you staying on Konoha?”

“Just passing through,” his cheeks crinkle a little as he smiles, “Tazuna-san and Tsunami-san set up a job for me in the Land of Tea. They expect me by the end of the week.”

“What ‘cha gonna be doing?” Naruto asks. They set off toward the village as Haku shares how he’ll be helping at a kimono shop, learning to dye and paint and embroider. He sounds so excited, so hopeful for the future, that when they finally part after stopping at a dango stand, Sakura can’t help but hug him a little tighter.

“Train well,” Haku says just to her while they’re still hugging. “You’ll be great.”

And, as she follows Naruto toward his apartment, pausing once to look back, and wave, a voice rumbles in her stomach and her head. “ _ We will be great, kit.” _

**Author's Note:**

> twitter @shortgoblin, tumblr @justdoityoufucker


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